that way any more than anyone else chooses their sexuality. With these things in mind, it becomes less clear where the moral line is. Can you write him off as evil, beyond redemption, and undeserving of empathy when he is really just mentally ill? To do so is to place yourself on a moral high ground.
The trick here is that the secondary subject wasn’t really being shocked. They were actors, instructed by the administrators to show increasing signs of distress as the experiment continued. Eventually, the actor would plead for their life and beg the test subject to stop administering shocks.
What we see during times of crisis is a compulsion to label those Most individuals tested continued to shock the actors, even after who have made mistakes and caused harm as evil instead of acceptthey begged them to stop. Anytime someone showed hesitation or ing that there are complicated reasons behind why people do what concern, the administrators assured them that everything was fine they do. Those reasons don’t excuse their and urged them to continue. Even though actions, but they inform them in a way that the people involved could have chosen to is too important to dismiss. People are not leave at any time, they stayed because they Can you write him off as were encouraged by the administrators. This only capable of doing good and bad things, but they can even do both at the same time. evil, beyond redemption, proves that, despite the fact we assume we are above certain actions, we can be influand undeserving of The larger issue is that people look at the enced into doing something terrible with worst examples of human behavior — enough encouragement. empathy when he is murder, rape assault and abuse — and try to really just mentally ill? separate the perpetrators from themselves as People tend to consider themselves above if they are not capable of doing something it all. They reject the idea that they could similar, given the right circumstances. It is a ever stoop so low. This is self-aggrandizing reactionary defense mechanism that shelters and wrong. We are all fallible and capable them from having to confront the reality of their own capacity of evil. Anyone who denies that is trying to hide from their own for malevolence. inner demons. The Milgram Experiment, a behavioral study of obedience conducted at Yale University in 1963, tested the notion that people can be influenced to commit atrocities. The test subject was placed in front of a switchboard with a range of buttons corresponding to a device that administered electric shocks. Overseen by an administrator, the test subject was instructed to ask the secondary subject, who was hooked up to the device, questions. Each time they get one wrong the test subject was told to shock them with greater intensity.
Are you defined by the worst thing you have ever done? You might be inclined to give yourself the benefit of the doubt when it comes to that question, but not other people. Instead of condemning those who do bad deeds, we should recognize the relative nature of morality and how that reflects upon ourselves. Examine why people do what they do and accept that human beings are full of contradictions. Don’t oversimplify the world by reducing it to black-and-white categories. Confront the gray area of morality by acknowledging your own capacity for malevolence.